Disfiguring the Goddess - the solo death metal project from Cameron Argon - recently dropped new album "Deprive," and in a surprise move released an unannounced companion album on the same day titled "Black Earth Child."

Now that both albums have seen official release, we got in touch with Cameron to discuss the new material, as well as working with artist Toshihiro Igawa on his albums. A transcript of the full conversation can be found below, along with tracks from both "Deprive" and "Black Earth Child."

xFiruath: So this actually ended up being a surprise double-album. How did that come about?

Cameron: I was sitting on demos for like six months and I was caught up with other music stuff. Around the time I could finish it I wanted to do another piece of music. It all kind of came together pretty fluidly because I had all these demos already done.

xFiruath: Since this is a solo project, do you use a home studio to record your albums?

Cameron: I’ve got a home studio and it’s more like a work space. I’ve got my guitar and desk and computer, and that’s all you really need out of the box to start composing and making tunes. The rest is on the computer as far as mixing and whatnot. I don’t have a drummer playing it out, I program out all the hits. It’s more compositions and productions than accumulating a band. I’ve always liked the idea of having guests and I’ve got friends in the metal community I’d love to make music with.

xFiruath: What’s going on with the lyrics on these two albums?

Cameron: I don’t really take the whole angry side of metal very seriously. I like to look at it as a big art project almost. As far as the lyrics, it’s mainly fantasy and horror stuff. Lovecraft inspires me. I’ll have a cool concept that’s something that pops in my mind or something I’ve seen on a video game. Video game concepts are awesome to write death metal lyrics about. I like to think of abstract, weird, sometimes apocalyptic stuff. I kind of do whatever I want, if it sounds good then it works out. I’m pretty stoked for the lyrics on these albums. When I was first starting Disfiguring the Goddess, lyrics weren’t really a thing for me, I didn’t enjoy them, but now I have more fun with it.

xFiruath: What’s happening as far as the artwork on both of the releases?

Cameron: Toshihiro Egawa, who also did the 2012 release “Sleeper.” He’s a pretty renowned underground death artist with a fantastic style. He always uses lots of color and it’s really abstract. I love the death metal art style and he’s one of the most interesting takes on it. I try to use him exclusively for Disfiguring artwork. I look at him as the illustrator for Disfiguring the Goddess. At first the “Deprive” concept was based off this place on the game Dark Souls. There’s this underground lake hidden area and I described it to Toshihiro and let him go. Usually I have a really rough concept and trust his art style and intuition and let him off the leash.

He did both albums, “Deprive” and “Black Earth Child.” For “Black Earth Child” I wanted mountains, for a goofy personal reason. Right after the album I was going back home to Nevada where I’m originally from, and its right next to these giant mountains, so I thought it would be cool to correlate with “going home” almost. The mountains on the cover don’t look like the Sierra Nevadas, but that’s where I sort of got the idea, and I think both covers side by side look good. They are both Disfiguring the Goddess records, but they have a lot of contrasts.

xFiruath: I saw you did a Reddit AMA a few days back – how did that go?

Cameron: There were a lot of questions, which made me pretty stoked. I was home spending time with the family when I did it, and I had to explain Reddit to my mom. I hit refresh and a bunch of questions pop up, so that was flattering. I used to talk with the fans more doing blogs, but I haven’t done much on social media lately so it was a nice time to talk with people who are into what I’m doing. I haven’t been as connected lately so it was nice to connect to the fans.

xFiruath: Are you getting a lot of requests for live appearances now that the albums are out?

Cameron: There have always been requests for live shows, but previously it wasn’t something I wanted to put the energy or money into. Lately I’ve been having conversations about live stuff, but the timeframe is a question mark. It would take a lot of work to take what Disfiguring is now and turn it into a live show. I’ve been toying with the idea and different concepts, but it’s just ideas at this point.

Ty Arthur splits his time between writing dark fiction, spreading the word about underground metal bands, and bringing you the latest gaming news. His sci-fi, grimdark fantasy, and horror novels can be found at Amazon.